Advertisement
Published: February 7th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Further greetings from Lalibela, to where we have returned after five days trekking on the Meket escarpment.
The first day started with a dusty drive to the middle of nowhere and, after a traditional lunch of injera, of which more later, we walked off into eucalyptus and juniper forests. It was hot and high, so our pace was fairly slow.
Nearing the end of the day we fairly abruptly came to the southern escarpment. We stood on a basalt ledge with the valley a kilometer below. It was like being on the edge of the Grand Canyon but with no “other side”.
A little way along the edge, we came to our first overnight stop. There were six little round tukul huts. Each had walls made of stone stuck together with mud and straw mortar. The pointed roof was thatched grass on a frame of eucalyptus beams.
Three of the huts were for visitors, each with a built-in mud and straw bed – with a nice modern foam mattress – and a balcony overlooking the view. The other three huts were a kitchen, a dining tukul and the loo – a loo with a spectacular view.
Tea and pancakes greeted our arrival and, after darkness had fallen, dinner was served around an open fire in the middle of the dining tukul. With fire providing the only light, it was difficult to see what we were eating – vegetable soup followed a rice dish, we decided. Outside, the sky was full of stars … and walking around required great care with the tukuls only a couple of metres from the edge. We went to bed by candlelight
The next day we trekked along the escarpment for a way, crossing a small waterfall, before heading inland between small farms. As we walked we had to shake hands with everyone, saying “Salam”. Whenever photographs were taken, everybody wanted to see the result on the back of the camera. This is an area with no electricity and even mirrors are unusual. To see one's own image is rare and, it seems, very amusing.
Just before lunch we reached the northern escarpment, along which we were to walk for the next three days, with odd detours into villages. The lunch stop again offered us a spectacular view but perhaps less spectacular food.
Injera is hard to describe. Imagine
a large, limp pizza base, the colour and texture of a dirty flannel. Now put on this more rolls of the same grey flannel. Now add, again on the injera “tablecloth”, a blob of chickpea curry, some spinach-like greens and some nice boiled potatoes, enlivened by the odd hidden green chilli. We won't miss these traditional lunches.
The second and third nights were spent in locations equally breathtaking, with a view north across valleys, ridges and deep gorges to mountains in the far mist. The walking was through mixed farms – as well as grain they grow beans, chickpeas, lentils and even pepper trees. The people smiled and greeted us at every little community “Salam, salam”.
Each evening, the elders of the village joined us around the fire in the tukul. Their interest in us was just as great as ours in them. Each morning, they returned with their account books and they were paid by the guide for their hospitality. They, in turn paid the donkey men and the cooks, with everything signed for and witnessed in their books. The community meets periodically to decide what to do with the profits – it was good to see
the money going so directly to the villages. At the moment, grain is cheap so they plan to buy more to fill their grain store.
On the fourth day we started to descend. We had slept at 3,100 metres and had to drop some 600 metres before lunch. Suffice it to say the donkeys were more sure footed than us. Ah, we should have mentioned the donkeys. Each lunchtime, they loaded our bag onto a donkey who duly plodded ahead of us to the evening stop. Each morning, the same donkey took our load once more until, at lunchtime, the donkey from the next village met us. Over lunch, the donkey men from the two villages exchanged news and gossip.
We had been told the final night was “in the valley” which was sort of true. It was on the top of the only hill in the valley. Once we had got up the hill, the views were once again superb. It was going to be hard to leave this all behind.
But this morning, leave it we had to and, saying a final farewell to donkeys, donkey men and village guides, we drove the dusty road
back to Lalibela – which feels quite modern and sophisticatd after the last few days. We had our first shower in five days – wonderful.
We start our journey to Pretoria tomorrow, flying first back to Addis before flying on to Jo'burg. We'll send another postcard when we can – maybe from South Africa, maybe Botswana.
Love, Gill and Alistair
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0325s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb